


The Case of the Unexpected Hoof

by the_klawwww



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action, Gen, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-30
Updated: 2020-05-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 20:02:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24452566
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_klawwww/pseuds/the_klawwww
Summary: First a hoof, then a horse leg. Is puberty turning Harry into a horse, or is something more nefarious going on? Takes place in year 5 probably.
Kudos: 4





	The Case of the Unexpected Hoof

“What the fuck?” yelled Harry, looking down at what he expected to be his foot. Ron and Hermione quickly followed his gaze.

“Is… is that… a hoof?” asked Hermione.

“It sure fucking looks like one!” Harry responded, still yelling. “It feels like one too!”

“Did that just appear?”

“I’ve been feeling a tingling feeling in my foot for the past minute. I just assumed it was asleep, but then all of a sudden it felt really heavy.” He pulled up his pajama pants a few inches. “Oh look, I’m all horse from the knee down. Isn’t that just perfect.”

“What have Fred and George been inventing now?” laughed Ron. “Oi!” Ron raised his voice to grab the attention of Fred, George, and Lee, who were all sitting on the other side of the common room, playing exploding snap. “What’d you give Harry?”

“What are you talking about?” asked Fred, looking up from the cards.

Harry spoke up before Ron could explain. “I haven’t eaten anything since dinner, don’t their candies normally work quicker?”

“Harry’s right, no one wants to have to wait for results. Besides, we haven’t been testing anything new the past few days,” said George. “Though now I’ve got some ideas… Fred what about a tart that…” A card exploded in his face before he could finish.

Hermione sighed in exasperation, clearly not believing them. “Fine, don’t help Harry then.” She turned back to Harry and Ron. “How irresponsible of them. I can’t see what else would cause you to grow a hoof in place of a foot Harry, but it they’re not going to help you, let’s go see Madame Pomfrey.”

After Ron and Hermione walked with Harry to the hospital wing, Madame Pomfrey poked and prodded the hoof with her wand while muttering incantations under her breath, and asked the three of them plenty of questions. She then sent Ron and Hermione away and had been staring intently at Harry’s leg without a word for the past five minutes. Finally, she spoke. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. It’s not a transfiguration gone wrong, you say you haven’t eaten anything since dinner, and you and your friends have assured me you are not attempting to become an animagus.” Madame Pomfrey knit her brow and looked at Harry’s hoof foot the same way someone would look at a stubborn stain on their robes. “Did you eat anything other than the food provided from the kitchens today? Is Professor Flitwick or Professor Snape teaching anything unusual in their classes?”

“No and no.” Harry considered this for a moment and then said with a surprised look on his face, “Snape hasn’t tried to poison me in a whole two weeks, it’s actually quite unusual.”

“Is it causing any pain or discomfort?”

“No pain, but I haven’t got used to walking on a hoof yet.”

“Well if that’s your only complaint, I say we wait a day, see if the magics wear off.”

“Oh great, Malfoy really needs more fuel for the ‘Torture Harry’ fire.”

“You’ll survive, return here tomorrow after class.”

It was dinner time when Harry left the hospital wing. He awkwardly limped into the dining hall, still unsure how to balance given his recent lack of toes. 

“Injured yourself from falling off a broom again, Potter?” Harry whirled around toward the Slytherin table and saw Malfoy smirking at him.

“At least I actually practice flying, while you just rely on your expensive broom,” Harry retorted. 

Malfoy smirk stayed level as he glared at Harry. “At least I have a father to buy me brooms.”

“Oh fuck off Malfoy!” yelled Hermione. “Harry, just ignore him.”

Harry didn’t have the energy for more Malfoy cheap shots at the moment and sat down next to Ron and Hermione with a sigh. “This hoof better go away soon.”

“On the bright side, if your entire leg becomes a horse leg, you’ll probably have the muscle to be able to kill Malfoy with a single kick,” said Ron.

Harry smiled and gulped down his pumpkin juice. “My evening just got much better.”

The next morning, Ron started awake when he heard a scream rip through the dormitory air. In the early morning light he could see two horse legs. They seemed to be attached to Harry’s torso and head. _How odd_ , thought Ron, still half asleep.

Harry seemed very freaked out. “Ron look….. I don’t know….. What the fuck…. I swear…. If this is Fred and George’s fault….. How long will this last.” Then he lost his balance and crashed to the floor. Through bleary eyes, Ron looked around the dormitory and saw wide eyes staring at Harry from three other bed curtains.

“Harry… you alright?” asked Dean, uncertainly checking in. Harry’s face flushed with embarrassment as he lifted up from the floor to look back at him, a slight trickle of blood dripping from his nose.

“Go back to sleep Dean, I’m ok.” Harry pulled a robe around him, tying it tight to cover his horse legs, and tried to walk out of the room. He promptly fell over again, this time catching himself before his face smashed into the floor. Ron jumped out of bed to help Harry stumble down the staircase and through the common room. Harry nearly kicked Ron in the head while he struggled through the portrait hole, but by the time they reached the infirmary, he could more or less walk on his own, with just one hand on Ron’s shoulder for support.

Harry sat down on one of the infirmary beds, letting his robes fall away from his legs. He called out to Madame Pomfrey, and she sleepily walked out from a side room while grumbling something about how students just can’t seem to injure themselves at reasonable hours. Then she saw Harry and stopped.

“I can see why you didn’t wait until after class Mr. Potter.” Madame Pomfrey walked over to her potions cabinet. “I’m still not sure what the root cause of your problem is, but I can give you a potion that will extract any traces of more minor magic from your body and flush them out. This may not solve your problem, but it can’t make it any worse. I expect there are more complicated magics affecting you, but this is a good first step.” She then handed Harry two small bottles and pointed to one. “Take this first.”

“Why are there two?” Harry asked.

“The second one’s for preventing the diarrhea,” she responded. Ron gave a little snort trying to conceal a laugh, which Madame Pomfrey ignored. “Return after class.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Two days filled with useless treatments later, Harry was preparing to go to sleep. He looked at his bed. He looked down at himself. Then back at the bed. Back at himself. He looked down at his horse legs, then twisted around to look at the horse flank and stubby back legs he had grown since that morning in the infirmary two days prior. Nothing Madame Pomfrey did had worked. She had even brought in Professor McGonagall to try some transfiguration solutions. Everything was temporary, and his horse features always popped back out after a few minutes.

Harry went back to staring at his bed. _Ok, I can make this work,_ he thought. He leaped up, twisted in midair, and came crashing down onto his bed on his side. His mattress cushioned his landing, but the bed frame smashed. Ron started to laugh from where he was watching on his bed. Harry madly scrabbled with all four legs to pull himself upright onto the floor, only making Ron laugh harder.

“That was dumb,” Ron managed to say through his tears of laughter.

“I don’t know how to do this, half of my body is a horse. And not even a fully grown horse, I’ve got these useless stubby back legs, walking anywhere is a nightmare, and concealing my… my _flank_ has just gotten more impossible as it’s grown!” Harry was starting to yell now.

“The invisibility cloak won’t stay on it! People keep stepping on my tail! Everyone in Hogwarts knows I’m growing horse parts by now, it’s not like I can wear pants to cover them up! AND FUCKING MALFOY JUST MAKES EVERYTHING WORSE I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHERE HE GOT HIS HANDS ON A CAMERA BUT HE’S BEEN FOLLOWING ME AROUND EVERYWHERE TRYING TO GET PANSY TO PULL OFF THE CLOAK I DON’T THINK HE EVEN GOES TO CLASS ANYMORE AND YOU CAN BET THOSE PHOTOS WILL BE IN THE DAILY PROPHET TOMORROW!!!” Harry breathed heavily.

Ron’s laughing had faded to a small chuckle. “Dumbledore will know how to solve this, talk to him tomorrow.”

Harry nodded slowly. He grabbed his wand from his wide table and repaired his bed frame. He stared at it some more, and finally said, “Fuck it.” Then Harry just tucked his horse legs underneath him to curl up on the floor, laid his head down on his bed, and went to sleep.

Just as breakfast was starting, Filch was brought to the armory by Mrs. Norris. As he approached he could hear loud crashes and a bang. One of the old magical cannons must’ve gone off. He slowed, preparing to enter carefully, when suddenly a fully grown centaur leaped over him through the doorway, swearing loudly and holding a bow, a quiver full of arrows, and a crossbow, his tail smoking. Filch just stared as the centaur galloped off in the direction of the Entrance Hall.

Dumbledore was sipping tea at the staff table, talking quietly with Snape.

“Professor,” whispered Snape, “the news is spreading, there’s a picture of him in the Daily Prophet this morning. Soon The Dark Lord will know he’s vulnerable.”

“Not to worry Severus, centaurs are incredibly powerful. They’ve helped him before, they’ll help him now.”

“Why are you not worried about this at all?”

Before Dumbledore could response, Harry bounded into the Great Hall, a fully fledged centaur. Not only had his back legs grown to their full length, he had also developed abs overnight and had not bothered with a shirt. A thin trail of smoke still rising from his tail, Harry knocked an arrow on his bow, pointed it at Snape, and released. Having never used a bow and arrow before, he instead hit a plate of bacon 10 feet away. Harry tossed the bow aside and instead shouldered his new crossbow, aimed, and pulled the trigger. This went slightly better as it was heading toward Snape’s shoulder, but a flick of Snape's wand send it into the leg of an unfortunate Ravenclaw. Harry flashed him the finger, waved at Ron and Hermione with a grin, and then bounded off toward the Forbidden Forest.

A silence lay over the entire hall, accompanied by many open mouths.

Dumbledore turned to face Snape. “I’m not worried, Severus, because I know he will be safer with the centaurs, and safer being a centaur, than he ever could be under my protection. I only ever do what’s best for Harry, and turning Harry into a centaur is best for him. Why else do you think I’ve been spiking his pumpkin juice for the past week?”


End file.
